The Nail That Sticks Out is a short film that tells the story of Aiko, a controversial Japanese artist living in the UK, who is struggling to complete her latest collection. Her muse and girlfriend, Elisabeth, faces her own pressures dealing with her fledgling acting career. The journey to Aiko’s final masterpiece takes in passion, lust, obsession and shows no sign of a happy ending.
Production Stills:
The Nail was a very ambitious project from the outset and required a large budget for a short film. The majority of this budget was raised through crowdfunding. Jordan (Director) and Rebekah (Writer) shared a passion for Asian Extreme cinema which had a large influence on the project. The film received a lot of industry support from the likes of Terry Bamber (Casino Royal, World War Z), Chris Kenny (Batman, Empire of the Sun) and Iain Smith (Local Hero, Mad Max: Fury Road).
The production included 4 months of pre-production, 4 days of production and 2 months of post-production. The Nail was shot entirely in the Midlands using Scene Studios in Nottingham The Gallery on De Montfort University’s campus and a location in Loughborough. The film was shot on 2 Arri Alexa cameras with Cooke S4/i Mini Cinema Prime Lenses which allowed us to capture stunning visuals which are integral to the film. A large part of the post-production process was done at Pinewood Studios. The film received its final colour grade there along with its final mix which was done by BAFTA and Oscar winning sound mixer Chris Benstead.
The Nail has already had success on the festival circuit racking up 4 award nominations and 2 award wins. The film was nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for Natsumi Kuroda and Laura Peterson’s performances at the Midlands Movies Awards 2019. Natsumi was again nominated and won the Best Actress Award at the Nexus Film Awards 2019. The Nail was also nominated for Best Drama at the awards and won. The film then went on to become an Official Selection and then a Finalist at the Lift-Off Global Network Sessions 2019. There is a larger festival run planned for the rest of the year and going into 2020 were hopefully The Nail will be able to reach a bigger audience.
